Here it is, our (tentative) 2023 layout. There is a good chance this will change before October. We are recycling some old elements that we didn't use in 2022, and hopefully won't need to buy a lot of parts. Changes since 2022: The maxi/mid tree on the left will be a bit thinner and taller,..
The Show is on Google Street View!
I meant to post this earlier in the year when I first found out about it. It looks like a Street View car went by around Thanksgiving and immortalized our show, at least the daytime view of it... They only seem to update our area every 5-ish years, so this should be around for a..
WLED Deck Light Controller
For the last 5+ years we've had colorful cafe-style lights along our back deck rail. These were proprietary lights made by a company called Enbrighten. Problem is- they kept failing after 2-3 years. We replaced all of them, and they eventually failed again. They were expensive too, for what they were. To replace them again..
Enclosure Temperature Control
During our 2022 lighting season, from Thanksgiving to New Years, the outside temperature ranged from -6℉ to 70℉. When I built a new projector enclosure, I had to build it with four (!) cooling fans/vents, three on the sides and one on the top, so I could keep the temperature inside the enclosure under 100℉..
Oak Hills Lights 2022 Stats
This year, we had... 19,540 pixels (individual lights able to display millions of colors) consisting of: 11,860 LED pixel module "bulbs". 7680 LED pixels in 15 "P10" sign matrix panels. A projected matrix of 57,600 virtual pixels. Oak Hills Lights - Controllers 2022 We used 12 controllers (Tune-To sign controller is not shown above) and 12 differential receivers (remote controllers), running..
xLights Around the World
This is our third year participating, and this year's video is out now! In previous years the displays have been random, but this year they sorted them by country, state, and city. We are at 2:48, along with a pretty good turnout from MO!
Arctic “Bomb Cyclone”
Most of North America has struggled late this week, just before Christmas, with record cold temperatures. Like much of the country, we saw rapid temperature drops, snow, and high winds as the storm line passed us. On Dec. 22nd, 2022 we went from 43℉ into the single digits in a matter of hours, and had..
Oak Hills Lights 2022 Walkthrough
Instead of a long video with me droning on-and-on, I thought I would do a walkthrough in pictures this year... Unfortunately things don't look quite as nice in daylight... We do have some more-conventional decorations on the porch and in front of the house. Our light show starts with the Show Runner computer, which is..
Oak Hills Lights 2022 Controllers
I thought I would share the controller diagram for our show this year. Hopefully it will give you a bit of an idea of what goes into something like this hardware-wise. This is a large PDF that you can download if you would like, otherwise it scrolls in the box below... Oak-Hills-LIghts-2022-ControllersDownload This just shows..
Show Control Panel
I mentioned this here and thought I would write up some quick information about it. This isn't really a complete build document, but it may give you some ideas you can use for your own show. Last year I used a scrolling P10 display inside the house to display our show's status. It wasn't very..
New-ish P10 Tune-To Sign
Just a quick build, adapted from some older ones... For cars parked down the street/hill from the front of the house, waiting in line, they can see most of the lights, but can't see our long Info Matrix under the carport, which has tune-to, song, and show information. Main Info Matrix Kim asked me to..
Mega Tree Wiring
I've received some inquiries from social media about why I pulled the fuses out of my K16A-B controller for our megatree and how it is wired. First, some background... This year we had planned on going from 2" spacing on the megatree strips to 1" spacing. Going from 75 pixels per strip to 150. We..
Is 5v really dangerous?
Quick safety lecture... Pixel light shows like ours run on either 5v or 12v DC. Because this isn't "scary" mains AC voltage (110-120vac in the US), some folks don't think it is dangerous. Well, here is the thing: Electrical current is measured in Amps. An amp is an amp, regardless of the voltage. It takes..